Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 12, 2012)
News Does Racial Bias Fuel Obama Foes? cable TV as the Democratic incumbent faces Mitt Romney, the white Republican challenger. Is it because he’s black? Four years after an election that inspired The question of whether race fuels oppo- hopes of a post-racial future, there are signs sition to President Barack Obama has that political passions are dragging us back- become one of the most divisive topics of ward. the election. It is sowing anger and frustra- ``We’re at a tipping point,’’ said Susan tion among conservatives who are labeled Glisson, director of the Institute for Racial racist simply for opposing Obama’s policies Reconciliation at the University of Missis- and liberals who see no other explanation sippi. ``But I don’t know which way we’re for such deep dislike of the president. going to tip.’’ Glisson knows that many conservatives dis- agree with Obama sole- ly because of his policies. ``But I am also quite certain that there are others who object to the president because of his race, because they have a fear of blacks — Courtland Milloy, The Washington Post that is embedded in our culture,’’ she said. Her conclusion is It is an accusation almost impossible to based on something called ``implicit prove, yet it remains inseparable from the bias’’— prejudices that people don’t realize African-American experience. The idea, they have. which seemed to die in 2008 when Obama Studies show that due to longstanding became the first black president, is now negative stereotypes about African-Ameri- rearing its head from college campuses to cans — which give such false impressions ‘It should not just be up to black people to identify it and have to deal with it. This is an American problem. It’s not just a black problem.’ JOHN MORENO PHOTO By Jesse Washington AP National Writer At the Republican National Convention, Ann Romney, Mitt Romney and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sit in a row in front of Paul Ryan and his wife Janna. as most black people are dangerous, unin- telligent or prefer welfare to work — many people harbor anti-black biases yet don’t even know it. Such unconscious biases, the studies show, are present in people of all backgrounds, not just whites. ``Our history has created this unconscious bias,’’ said Gail Christopher, vice president of program strategy for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, which has funded research on the subject. ``Now we need to create safe places to discuss and educate people about unconscious bias, where we are not blaming and shaming them.’’ Those safe places generally do not include the political arena. ``Every time they say, `We want our coun- try back,’ I know what that means,’’ Susan Bankston, a white Democratic National Convention delegate from Richmond, See OBAMA on page 7 ‘Shop, Cook, Eat: Outside of the Box’ Vancouver author wants to help you change your life By Lisa Loving Of The Skanner News C hrisetta Mosley’s career as an author is taking off. She has a second book about healthy eating – “Shop, Cook, Eat: Outside of the Box” — and loads of readers for her bright and positive blog, “Farewell Fatso!” http://foronceandforall- farewellfatso.blogspot.com/ But what really motivates Mosley is sav- ing peoples’ lives through exercise, good food and community. “The thing is, when I was close to 400 pounds, I could barely walk and I could barely breathe,” she says. “Everything seemed to me like an obstacle course, basi- cally. “My sense of life was gone – I wasn’t really living life.” Today almost 200 pounds lighter and much, much hap- pier, Mosley leads free cook- ing classes at Chuck’s Produce & Street Market at 13215 SE Mill Plain Blvd. in Vancouver; and she runs the “5 or 50” Women’s Sustain- able Weight Loss and Lifestyle Group at Cascade Park Communi- ty Library. She has book signings for “Shop, Cook, Eat,” on Thursday, Sept. 13 from noon to 3 p.m. at Chuck’s (with food sampling); and Friday, Sept. 14 from 4 to 6 p.m. at Tully’s Coffee at 1801 SE 164th Ave. in Vancouver. On Tuesday, Sept. 11, Mosley celebrates the one-year anniversary of her cooking classes at Chuck’s, and she’s planning to fix Asian and Mediterranean-inspired lettuce wraps – straight out of the new cookbook. Her biggest goal is to persuade more peo- ple to walk away from processed, unhealthy food that’s eaten on the fly – in favor of home-cooked meals enjoyed at the dinner table with family and friends. “My first book was called ‘Bringing Cooking Back,’ and my goal was to bring everybody back to the kitchen so that we would cook at home again,” she said. With “Shop, Cook, Eat,” Mosley says, “I’m going to show you simple ways that you can do that — it doesn’t have to be complicated.” According to Mosley, the biggest chal- lenge in building a healthier life is simply to prepare for it. “I’m going to be honest with you – it’s going to take a commitment,” she says. “It doesn’t just happen, and that’s why it’s so difficult – because so many people are pressed for time. “But we have to start making it our prior- ity.” Mosley says that unlike many people, she didn’t eat because of family trauma or abuse – but nevertheless her relationship with You can work out one hour a day but it’s the other 23 hours in the day that are going to be the most important and that’s because it’s your nutrition. Page 6 The Seattle Skanner food wasn’t healthy. So one day she literal- ly decided she was going to change that. “I was very fortunate because – I did have high blood pressure but I never developed diabetes. I think that I may have had sleep apnea but the doctors never diagnosed it. It just came from the excess weight,” she said. “So there weren’t as many health prob- lems, it was more me being very, very uncomfortable with myself, and knowing that if I didn’t stop I was going to end up with a slew of health problems and eventu- ally I might die from it. “I was just too big, and my body couldn’t take it and I couldn’t take it.” Mosley says first, she started working out – and she started losing weight and regain- ing her mobility; her high blood pressure vanished. “I started exercising and feeling really good about myself,” she says. September 12, 2012 But advice from the trainer at her gym shifted her vision of health into overdrive. “He said, ‘You can work out one hour a day but it’s the other 23 hours in the day that are going to be the most important and that’s because it’s your nutrition. “’The food is going to be the biggest piece – so you need to look at what you’re eating.’” So Mosley enrolled in a health class at Clark College and started reading everything she could find, from Dr. Oz to health department reports and the famous food author Michael Pol- lan. “I just really started dialing in,” she says. Now her new cookbook is required reading in the health class at Clark College. Mosley says she is not into fad diets; she’s not a vegan or a veg- etarian or gluten-free, and she’s not enthusiastic about the trendy new “Paleo” diet in which you can only eat things that cavemen ate. She prefers to eat a wide range of foods – including organic, chemical-free meat and dairy – with an emphasis on loads of fresh veggies and grains. Mosley’s philosophy dovetails with that of Pollan, author of “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” whose now-famous guidelines are: “Eat food. Not a lot. Mostly plants.” On a recent morning Mosley pulled out of her purse Pollan’s newest book, “Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual,” in which the author suggests sticking with foods that your grandparents would recognize. “What’s a Go-Gurt?” Mosley asks. “We are a very reactive society, I believe, so when we start hearing these buzzwords – healthy, gluten-free, we buy into those things,” she says. “What’s happened is people aren’t paying attention anymore. So, you’ve got Nabisco telling you that these crackers are fresh and they have this and this and that. “Nabisco is going to promote themselves as good food, they’re going to tell you that this box of stuff is healthy, but that does not mean that it is healthy,” she says. “I would just ask people to be mindful of their choices. “I would prefer that you don’t eat any- thing out of a box, but if you do, you’re going to turn the box over and you’re going to be careful and you’re going to make some smart choices about what you do bring in the house.” Find out more about Mosley’s activities on her blog, “Farewell Fatso!”
